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August 2017
MODERN MINING
45
COMPANIES
Above:
Maccaferri
provided the tip wall at
Banro’s Twangiza gold
mine in the DRC.
are diversified in the sense that we work right
across both the mining and civil engineering
industries with the bigger part of our work-
load coming from the civil engineering side,”
he notes.
Outlining Maccaferri’s offering to the min-
ing sector, Meadows says the company is a
global leader in the manufacturing and sup-
ply of gabions and associated wire mesh
products, as well as geosynthetics including
geogrids and geocomposites, which singly
or in combination can be used in a variety of
applications – for example, rockfall protec-
tion, retaining wall construction, soil and
slope stabilisation, drainage systems and ero-
sion control. “Our manufacturing standards
are very high and we have ISO 9001: 2008
and ISO 14001: 2004 certification, and run
an Integrated Management System, which
includes BS OHSAS 18001:2007,” he states.
Although Maccaferri has been active in
South Africa for 60 years, the global Maccaferri
operation dates back to the late 1870s, when
the company was founded in Italy by Raffaele
Maccaferri, credited as the inventor of the
modern form of the gabion. Today, the com-
pany remains a family-oriented business but is
also a true multi-national, with over 70 sub-
sidiaries around the world, manufacturing
facilities in a number of countries including
South Africa, and a global workforce of nearly
3 000. The South African operation – whose
MD is Adriano Gilli – is based in Durban,
where a modern production unit covering
more than 9 000 m
2
is located, but also has
offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town. It
works throughout Africa and has completed
contracts as far north as Egypt and Eritrea.